WOW Weekend meet, Spetchley Park

from Classic and Competition Car 142 June 2022

by Simon Wright

Buick Special Streamliner

Wheels at the Weekend (WOW) Spetchley Park Gardens. 12th June 2022. By Simon & Janet Wright

Mercedes Benz pair in the Grounds of Spetchley Park Gardens.

MG line-up

© Janet Wright

Wheels on Wednesday (WOW) held there Wheels on the Weekend June meeting on a sunny Sunday morning near the beginning of the month. There was a massive turnout at Spetchley park gardens, with a great variety of vehicles on display. As usual there was also a great selection of food and drink vendors on site, with queues at most. The warm weather attracted a lot of convertible sports car owners to bring out their pride and joy with the roof down. The 2007 blue Alfa Romeo Spider is a typical stylish Italian convertible which was produced between 2006 and 2010 by Pininfarina and marketed by Alfa Romeo. In total nearly twelve and a half thousand were built. Powered by a 2.2 litre JTS 4 cylinder inline engine, with options for a 1.75 litre turbocharged version or a 3.2 litre V6 engine. The 2.2 litre engine produced 182 hp, while the V6 produced 256 hp and the turbocharged 1.75 litre engine produced 197 hp. The car is front engine, front wheel drive, except for the 3.2 litre which uses a Torsen four-wheel drive system. The 2.2 litre version has a top speed of 139 mph and could accelerate from 0-62 mph in 8.8 seconds.

At the other end of the engine scale was a rumbling red 1992 Chevrolet Corvette C4 with a massive 5.7 litre V8 engine. This gave the car a top speed of 179 mph, with acceleration from 0-60 mph in just 4.9 second This was the fourth generation of the Corvette model and ran from 1984 to 1996. A typical traditional front engine, rear wheel drive American sports car. It featured an electronic dashboard with a digital LCD display instrument cluster. It also replaced the four headlights with two single headlights, but still retractable. The front suspension

1992 Chevrolet Corvette

© Simon Wright

replaced the existing front coil springs with a transverse fibreglass mono-leaf spring. This was a third of the price of the existing system.

If the Corvette is not in your price range, how about a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle convertible. The original Beetle is one of the Worlds most iconic cars, with over 15 million built between 1938 and 2003. Only just over 330,000 were built as Cabriolet models. Engine options varied from 1100cc through to 1600cc, with many air-cooled. The other unusual feature was that the engine was mounted in the rear, driving the rear wheels. The car had a top speed of around 80 mph. With the warm weather, the option for top down motoring is very appealing. If, however, that is not enough, then the MEV Exocet may be your ideal vehicle. An extreme kit car, the Exocet offers open top and even open side motoring, with very little bodywork on this kit cart. Based on the Mazda MX5, it offers a light weight, conventional front engine, rear wheel drive sports car. The manufacturers claim the Exocet to be the lowest cost, easiest to build and fastest selling kit in the World. The tubular space frame chassis has very few body panels, which keep cost and weight down. The Mazda MX5 is an excellent donor vehicle as the subframes can be bolted directly to the Exocet chassis. The engine and gearbox are very reliable and offer great performance , which when added tom a body that is half the weight of the original offer fantastic performance and economy. For the ultimate open top motoring try the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. With a top speed of over 217 mph and 0-62 mph in 2.8 seconds, it will take your breath away.